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Plan approved to transform Red Hook, Columbia Street Waterfront into new neighborhood
By
David Brand
Published Sep 22, 2025
Modified Sep 22, 2025
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Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
By
David Brand
Published Sep 22, 2025
Modified Sep 22, 2025
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The sixth time’s the charm.
A panel of local leaders voted Monday to approve a controversial plan to turn a 122-acre stretch of industrial waterfront around the Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a brand-new residential neighborhood following months of delays. The task force greenlit the plan after significant modifications to the proposal and five previous vote postponements because it lacked the necessary support to advance.
The vote allows the city’s economic development authority to proceed with a vision to build 6,000 new apartments along the shore of Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront District while bypassing the city’s typical land-use process through what’s known as a “general project plan.” The broken affordable-housing promises of another such plan at Atlantic Yards have loomed over the Brooklyn Marine Terminal negotiations. Developers have completed just 1,374 of the 2,250 units of affordable housing they agreed to create under a state-led plan in 2014.
But supporters of the marine terminal redevelopment took a victory lap in the wake of Monday's vote.
“Today, our city took a massive step towards the future,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, adding the proposed changes would unlock "opportunity for generations to come.”
The city’s Economic Development Corporation organized a 28-member board to review and approve its plan with a two-thirds majority. Members of the board — chaired by U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat representing the area — objected to the proposed creation of about 12,000 new units of housing, the potential impact on traffic in a transit-starved section of Brooklyn and the loss of industrial space at one of the borough’s last working waterfronts.
Borough President Antonio Reynoso was among the holdouts. He said he changed his mind after the authority agreed to consider preserving more space for manufacturing and port operations, and allow for continuing oversight and input.
“This is more of a proposal than it is an actual plan,” Reynoso said on WNYC’s "Brian Lehrer Show" last Friday. “We are going to have a board … to make sure they have a plan that is viable.”
The approved proposal is significantly different from the one the Economic Development Corporation and Adams first put forward last year. Reynoso and other task force members negotiated with the authority to reduce the overall number of new apartments and condos, more than halving the total to 6,000 in response to community concerns. At least 40% of the units would be deemed “affordable," with rents capped for low- and middle-income tenants.
The plan would carve the site into two sections called BMT North and Atlantic Basin. BMT North would be bound by Atlantic Avenue and DeGraw Street and feature about two-thirds of the proposed housing. New building heights in this zone would be capped at 425 feet.
Atlantic Basin, located along the waterfront between Piers 11 and 12, would feature the bulk of the industrial and commercial space. Its building heights would be capped at 325 feet, according to the the Economic Development Corporation’s latest “vision plan.”
The proposal, which could take a decade or more to come to fruition, is also meant to improve the city’s waterway freight system. It would additionally invest $200 million in nearby New York City Housing Authority complexes.
The Economic Development Corporation faced a Sept. 30 deadline to unlock federal related to the project. The authority can now begin environmental review and other studies before issuing a formal general project plan.
The proposal still faces opposition from many residents in the surrounding communities. Tenant activist John Leyva, an advisor to the task force, called the planning process to date “terrible,” and said he wants the city to preserve more of the waterfront terminal.
“This is the last working waterfront in Brooklyn,” Leyva said. “They rushed this through.”
This story has been updated to correct the year that Atlantic Yards developers reached an agreement with the state.
Tagged
antonio reynoso
brooklyn
columbia street waterfront district
economy
housing
new york city
red hook
David Brand
David is a reporter covering housing for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 908-310-3960.
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